Five most boneheaded plays of NFL Week 6

The NFL is the pinnacle of football. From the athletes to the coaching, the NFL is considered the premier example of America’s favorite sport.

Despite this, boneheaded plays abound. As we showed you last week, even in the highest tiers of this game, coaches and players do things that leave you absolutely baffled.

Thus was born Sportsnaut’s newest weekly series, highlighting the most mind-numbing and boneheaded plays of the week.

Let’s get started.

1. Chuck Pagano, WHAT were you thinking?

Normally, going for it on 4th and inches reeks of desperation. The first thought is that said team sees it’s hopes of winning dwindling and is making one all out attempt to get back into the game.

Which makes Chuck Pagano’s decision to go for it on fourth and inches on the eight-yard line late in the third quarter while down by FOUR points all the more baffling.

On top of going for it on fourth rather than taking a guaranteed three points from a field goal (a kick that would have been shorter than a point after attempt), the Colts ran an abomination of a play, giving Andrew Luck a single read.

As for the blocking and Luck staring down his single read instead of tucking and running? We can’t begin to explain how bad this was. Sliding the line away from the blitz, soloing Whitney Mercilus up on a tight end and running back (sort of)?

This was vomit worthy, and a simple twitter search of “Pagano 4th down” shows you just how sick and upset Colts fans have been in the days following this laugher of a loss to the Brock Osweiler-led Houston Texans.

2. Ken Zampese shows his ineptitude as a play caller, in multiple ways.

Without context, the following play doesn’t seem overly terrible, even with the fact that the Bengals are going for it on fourth and Goal from the one-yard line down only three points.

So how about we add in the context?

Sure enough, Ken Zampese called the exact same play two downs earlier. That’s more or less the definition of idiocy.

Now add in the fact that A) Domata Peko didn’t block anyone on the fourth down run, actually whiffing on a blitzer, and B) that Zampese kept his 230-pound Jeremy Hill on the bench in favor of a smallish Gio Bernard on an obvious power run situation, and you begin to see why Bengals fans are clamoring for Zampese’s head.

3. Derek Carr, buddy, why?

Derek Carr’s gunslinging mentality mixed with the fire and drive to lead his team to the win has won many a fan over. Despite this, Carr still does things that just make you drop your head and shake it in disbelief.

For example, this play here in the Raiders’ blowout loss at home to divisional-rival Kansas City Chiefs.

This was boneheaded for a couple reason, and after the game Marcus Peters took a shot at Carr’s arm strength.

“Crabtree had me beat… but I knew he [Carr] couldn’t throw it that far,” he said, per the team website.

Now, Carr has special arm strength, that much is obvious to any casual fan. But this game was played on a soaked field, in the middle of a very rainy day. Despite this, Carr attempted to throw it off his back foot and outside the hashes. This is a very bad combination.

Even if you have elite arm talent. Even if your receiver has the defensive back beat. You can’t make dumb decisions like that.

4. Mike McCarthy made his seat hotter than it’s ever been.

First off, shoutout to my good friend Justis Mosqueda for alerting me of this one, as I had completely missed this Cowboys-Packers matchup when reviewing plays for this list.

For a long stretch of Aaron Rodgers’ prime, not many people had bad words to say about Mike McCarthy, the Green Bay Packers head coach and play caller.

As the Packers have floundered their way to a 3-2 record (surprising, considering how they’ve played), the calls for McCarthy to be fired have grown louder (more on that here).

This sequence of plays to end the first half against Dallas didn’t help things.

Now, attacking the middle of this defense is perfectly fine. The fact that the Packers’ offense looked like they had no clue what they were doing is not fine at all.

Randall Cobb receives blame for this bonehead play as well. When you get into obvious field goal territory, why keep running?
Horrible decision by Cobb.

But the clock management by McCarthy leading up to this play, alongside the play calling, was pathetic.

As a head coach/play caller, you scheme and practice for every scenario, especially something as pivotal as a two-minute drill.

The fact that this Packers offense looked absolutely clueless is an indictment of McCarthy as a head coach and play caller.

Enjoy the bonehead list, Mike.

5. Apparently, the New Orleans Saints don’t teach their players who exactly they should tackle.

I’m not really sure what there is to say about this play.

Let us all just hope that New Orleans can find a new defensive coordinator, because with how this unit has played all season, Drew Brees may never get another shot at a Super Bowl.